Jorge Lorenzo News
During the press conference for the final round of 2019 MotoGP at Valencia, Jorge Lorenzo shocked the crowd as he announced his retirement from professional motorcycle racing.
Sitting beside Dorna Sports CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta, the five-time World Champion Lorenzo said the 2019 Valencia GP would be his last race.
Lorenzo, who spent 18 years in World Championship racing, attributed injuries for his decision to retire from MotoGP.
“Unfortunately, injuries soon came to play an important role in my season, being unable to ride in normal physical conditions,” the Repsol Honda rider Lorenzo said during the conference.
“This, plus a bike that never felt natural to me, made my races very difficult. Anyway, I never lost the patience and I kept fighting, just thinking that was a simple matter of time and that after all things would get into the right place.
“But, as I started to see some light I had this bad crash in Montmelo test, and some weeks later that ugly one in Assen. At that point I had to admit, that when I stopped rolling into the gravel, the first thought that came into my mind was ‘what the hell I’m doing here? Is this really worth it? I’m done with it.’ Some days later after reflecting a lot about my life and career, I decided to give it a try. I wanted to be sure I was not making an early decision.
“The truth is from that crash, the hill became too high for me, and even if I tried I couldn’t find the motivation and patience to be able to keep climbing it. You know, I love this sport, I love to ride, but above all things, I love to win. I understood, that if I’m not able to fight for something big, to fight for the title or at least to fight for victories, I cannot find the motivation to keep going especially at this stage of my career.”
The 32-year-old Lorenzo joined the World Championship in 2002, riding for the Caja Madrid Derbi Racing team in the former 125cc two-stroke class. He joined the 250cc class in 2005 and claimed the 2006 and 2007 titles aboard the Fortuna Aprilia RSW 250.
Lorenzo joined MotoGP in 2008, racing for Yamaha through 2016 and achieving three premier-class titles (2010, 2012, 2015). He competed for Ducati in 2017 and 2018 before joining Repsol Honda in 2019. His last three seasons aboard non-Yamaha machinery has been up and down. During the past three seasons, he claimed only three victories compared to four during his final 2016 season with Yamaha.
Following the announcement at Valencia, Ezpeleta said Lorenzo will be inducted into the MotoGP Hall of Fame as a MotoGP Legend during the 2020 Spanish Grand Prix at Jerez.
Lorenzo leaves the MotoGP World Championship with a number of incredible achievements to his name including:
- Second most podium finishes in the premier class (114)
- Second-highest amount of pole positions across all classes (69)
- Fifth most successful rider in terms of wins in the premier class (47)
- Third highest point scorer of all time (2896) in the premier class
